Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing mortgage issues in the context of landlords of Thai condos. I got to thinking of this after reading a recent, this was a correspondent sent to us. Quoting directly: "After 2 years of pandemic there are increasing cases of Thai landlords no longer meeting their payment obligations and the financing banks confiscating condos. What are the implications for tenants and what is the legal situation? Can you make a video about it?"

Yeah, two ways to look at this. First of all it is kind of the standard issue associated with landlord-tenant relations. You saw a little bit of this in the film "The Big Short". If folks haven't seen that movie I urge them to watch it. It is not only a really entertaining film but it is actually quite enlightening about the way the mortgage crisis happened; the financial crisis happened back in 2008. I believe it is based on a book called The Greatest Trade Ever. I read that book. It is quite interesting as well and they go into all the folks involved in that movie, a little more in detail but you saw this in one of the scenes where they were going around talking to folks that were in some of these houses and there was a guy, he was renting this house and he said "hey is my landlord, are they not paying the mortgage because I have been paying my rent?" was basically what this person was saying. And it is a real problem. If  you are renting a condo from somebody who has a mortgage on their condo and that condo gets foreclosed upon, then you have got some issues with respect to whether or not you can maintain your residence in that space. Now most of the time I think most banks are going to be perfectly happy to continue to have a tenant in there although maybe not; again it depends on circumstances. So that is something to think about with respect to renting. It is another reason why buying especially a condo in Thailand is not a terrible idea, not only because you forestall these issues with a landlord having a problem with a mortgage but also in Thailand, foreign nationals can own their Thai condos in freehold; they can have full title to a Thai condo. Another thing to keep in mind is so-called off plan condos when you have got a developer that is building a condo complex and they have mortgages etc. and you are buying off plan. This is where you can get into some real problems if that developer goes defunct and ends up in foreclosure to the bank and now you have got money tied up in that project.

Again, this is a good reason to undertake due diligence before buying any type of condo in Thailand because again you may be able to forestall some of these issues and sort of side step that before it even happens. So again things to think about with respect to purchase of a condo or rental of a condo here in Thailand and mortgage issues associated with the developer or the landlord.